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Comment: Brenda Power: Legal fat cats everywhere must be tackled

The response to the taoiseach’s pronouncement that tribunal lawyers could have their daily fees cut by almost two-thirds might have been a bit optimistic. The exchequer is unlikely to see significant savings any time soon.

Ever since Charlie McCreevy revealed earlier this year that a tribunal senior counsel earns more in 3½ days than an old-age pensioner gets in 12 months, the arguments in favour of the high fees have become increasingly difficult to sustain. But the idea that a lucky few should rake in such phenomenal earnings is so deeply embedded within the legal profession that it will take more than cosmetic changes to shift it.

When the current crop of tribunals was established, the scale and complexity of the work to be undertaken was daunting. It was generally accepted that the investigation of corruption and deceit among persons so elevated and clever they could devise artful devices to